Downed conductor lines pose a serious hazard to people, animals, and the environment. Downed conductor lines can occur when an energized conductor line comes in contact with a quasi-insulating object, such as a tree, structure or equipment, or the ground. Such an event often causes arcing and flashing at the point of contact.
Even more problematic is the detection of such faults in an area that has high ground resistance, such as a desert location. When an energized conductor line falls to the ground in an area with a high ground resistance, such as sand, the fault current of the downed conductor lines is substantially zero due to the extremely high ground resistivity values. Conventional methods of measuring fault detections rely, for example, on source-side signal processing of currents and/or voltage, and are unable to detect high impedance faults in high ground resistance areas. Applicant has recognized the foregoing problems and limitations in the field and provides various embodiments to detect downed conductor lines in high ground resistance areas.